Krzysztof's Reviews > Holy Fire

Holy Fire by Bruce Sterling
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it was ok

I read this book years ago, but only remembered the general gist of it. Having just finished a second read-through, I think I know why.

This is the kind of book that will resonate strongly with people who like the kind, but will leave others lost and bewildered. I'm in that second group. A very high-concept book, it's extremely hard to read, and incredibly difficult to fully grasp. Sterling uses concepts and ideas which he doesn't care to explain, so that only the most technically-minded readers are able to imagine what he meant. The book is full of philosophical and technical babble, which doesn't help. Key concepts to the book's world are never fully described - after reading the whole thing I still haven't got the foggiest idea what the "Holy Fire" is, how the net works in this world, or any certain info on... anything, really!

The story is... well, it's very badly executed. Things will happen, which seem to have no bearing on the plot whatsoever, while other things, which sound interesting, are only touched upon and then abandoned. Characters are wholly unlikeable and it's very difficult to understand or relate to their supposed motivations. It just seems that throughout the book not much happens - a lot of thoughts appear internally, within the main character's mind, but not much action stems from it. And I don't mean shooty-brawly-combaty action, I mean ANY kind of action. Things are discussed (art, philosophy, politics, science), but nothing changes, nothing happens.

The book is very chaotically written, with dialogues which lead nowhere, events which don't have any impact at all on anything, and sudden changes of locations, environments and situations, which completely lost me as a reader. I found it hard to follow the plot, which is basically derailed starting from the second chapter - only 1/4 or so of the book! - and never reaches any kind of valuable conclusion. I read the Polish translation of it, so it may be a problem which is made more serious by that fact, but I have a feeling that it may not be wholly the translator's fault.

When you add all that to a, perhaps, realized (but unpenetrable) cyberpunk setting, which includes some things which I found didn't quite fit in there (like DNA operations which revert you to a primate state or intelligent dogs running talk-shows), it becomes even harder to go through this book believing what you're reading actually happened. I find that "internal world realism" is CRITICAL for Science-Fiction and Fantasy settings - if it doesn't make sense within that fictional world's rules and unique "feel", it is even more so unbelievable than if it would happen in the real world. Sterling dropped the ball in that department - which is the final blow to a book which could've been saved by an interesting world.

This book will only appeal to hardcore sf connoisseurs. For any other reader, even cyberpunk enthusiasts like myself, this may be a chore, or even a completely hopeless attempt at trying to find a good thing about the book - with neither story, nor characters, or even setting being a saving grace, there's really not that much here to keep you interested in the convoluted narrative.
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Reading Progress

February 20, 2012 – Shelved
July 4, 2012 – Started Reading
July 9, 2012 –
page 145
39.4%
July 10, 2012 –
page 169
45.92%
July 11, 2012 –
page 202
54.89%
July 12, 2012 –
page 246
66.85%
July 13, 2012 –
page 275
74.73%
July 15, 2012 – Finished Reading

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